Set in the last
decade of innocence, rural Lanarkshire
in the late 1950s was a place of
ambition for the young, as the war
babiesrealisedthat they never had it so good. The
young people of Faskine had the dreams
to move on from the life of misery found
on the miners rows to the glitzy, real
and vibrant life that was seen and heard
of not so far away.

Two teenage girls,
on their own can full of compassion,
laughter and zest for the human
condition take their sisterhood to the
boundaries and over, tailored by a
heartrending transcript of their lives.
Shaken by their own families ambitions
and secrets Mary Francis Connelly and
Mharie Burns challenge friendship to the
core, will it survive?Their paths were to
be broken by want, despair and abuse,
pushing them towards a life they never
expected or wanted to follow. Would love
be found or lost? Two families, two
neighbours, too far apart in their love
for their daughters would push
friendship to the limit.

A concoction of
characters that are no strangers to the
reader are to be found with the reader
being able to associate someone or scene
from their past and place them into the
narrative, we have all come across them
at some point in our lives. Two girls,
one becomes societies tag while another
is determined to hide her own label. An
escape from scorn and gossip is sought;
how can you support a friend while
trying to move on with your own selfish
life?

Society in the
1950s had its own view of their young.
Mothers and Fathers would differ, some
did not care. Stories When Your Dead
depicts the lives of realistic
characters that we have all come across
at some point in our lives. The Faskine
village is a walk down memory lane
revisiting those places that are long
overgrown or desolate and ravaged by
time. For the reader the story is a
pictorial description of a landscape and
life style, set in a bygone time. Full
of sectarianism and the hatred that
follows it, can love and concerns win
through? A drama unfolds for a recipe of
characters that are no strangers to you
when you reach the final page after
visiting some Lanarkshires darkest
corners.

The Author

William Kerr was
born and raised in Calderbank but now lives in the neighbouring
village of Chapelhall. He is married
with three children and can say he knows
the people and the society that compels
these Monkland villages with his own
families roots traced to Faskine and
Calderbank over the past two hundred and
fifty years.